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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30107805">He's the greatest dancer</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/'>Anonymous</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Starsky &amp; Hutch</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(Hutch is 16 in flash backs), Angst with a Happy Ending, Based off of various fan theories I've seen floating around the internet, Forced Prostitution, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Intersex Ken Hutchinson, M/M, Underage Sex</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 00:00:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Rape/Non-Con, Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,809</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30107805</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Starsky decides to take Hutch on a cross country road trip when news about his past breaks out. Along the way, he discovers things about himself that had always been there but had never before come to the surface.<br/>And Hutch agrees on the trip so that he can finally leave his past behind him and come to terms with a few things of his own.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ken Hutchinson/David Starsky</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Anonymous</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Finally out of the hospital</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was nearing 3 am when Captain Dobey finally finished for the night.<br/>
After locking up his office with a yawn, he glanced into the bullpen. Not expecting to see anyone there for another hour, he had to do a double-take when he thought he saw a familiar head of blonde hair.<br/>
Hutch was still their bent over his desk, tapping it absentmindedly with his pen with waining speed as he stared down at his paperwork.<br/>
With a tired sigh, the older man opened the door to the office.<br/>
"Hutchingson! I thought I told you to go home an hour ago," He chided the young detective, though his heart wasn't entirely in it.<br/>
Hutch sat up straight with a snort as he was on the verge of falling asleep and looked over towards his captain with a sheepish smile.<br/>
"Ah, I see you're heading home for the night, Captain," Hutch said in return, not hearing all of what Dobey had said.<br/>
Dobey sighed again and shook his head as he said softly, "Yes, which is what you should be doing. What are you still doing here?"<br/>
"I'm just finishing off some paperwork," Hutch replied with a shrug as he began to do repeated paperwork.<br/>
Dobey's face scrunched into a sympathetic grimace as he opened the door further. He then walked into the room and carefully shut the door behind him so that they had a bit of privacy.<br/>
"We've got this in the bag, son. Gunther will not escape justice," he said softly as he came to a rest on the side of the younger man's desk.<br/>
"But what if it isn't enough. What if we've missed something?" Hutch asked the desk more than his captain.<br/>
Dobey placed a comforting hand on his favourite detective's shoulder, which he then shook.<br/>
"Look, staring at paperwork, reports and the like until they all blur together isn't going to do you, or this case, much good. Go home, get some sleep, and come look at this stuff with fresh eyes in the morning if you truly think we've missed something."<br/>
Hutch sighed and gave in, nodding his head tiredly.<br/>
"Come on, let's go," Dobey said with more enthusiasm than he felt as he got up from his perch. But when Hutch didn't make a move, he dragged the tired detective up out of his seat and gently pushed the man towards the exit.</p><p>But instead of going home that night, Hutch instead made his way to the hospital. He wandered drowsily to Starsky's hospital room, ignoring the exasperated protests from the nursing staff until he made it to his best friend's room, where he subsequently froze.<br/>
It had been a few months since Starsky was shot, and he was beginning to recover well. He had been moved out of the ICU and had even started to do some physiotherapy. Which Hutch had been helping him do whenever he was there, which was a lot. So there was no need for him to be hucked up to the machines anymore.<br/>
But there he was, lying in bed with a needle in his arm and electrodes attached to his chest.<br/>
Hutch shakily made his way towards the window beside Starsky's bed as his mind began to race with worrying thoughts, and the faint sound of ping pong match started to play in his mind.<br/>
What happened?<br/>
Why has he been attached to the machine again?<br/>
The doctors said he was recovering well. Did he have a stroke?<br/>
A heart attack?<br/>
Why wasn't I informed this had happened?!<br/>
After a few minutes, he was unable to watch his partner anymore. So he leaned himself against the window frame and looked outside instead.<br/>
The sound of the ping pong match in his mind became louder and louder as the minutes went by until finally, he could no longer withstand the sound. He winced and made a distressed sound as the tock tock tocking noise the match was making became too much. He tried to drown out the noise by covering his ears, but the noise only increased in volume, making him partially bend over in pain.<br/>
Until suddenly, the noise stopped.<br/>
"Hutch, what's wrong?"<br/>
Hutch quickly snapped his head up to look at the bed beside him.<br/>
"Starsk?" He asked weakly, almost pathetically so, which made Starsky sit himself up slightly, with only a slight wince.<br/>
"Yeah, it's me, babe, come here," Starsky croaked out as he scooted away sideways on his bed a little to make room, suddenly feeling the need to comfort his visibly distressed friend.<br/>
Hutch hesitated for a few seconds, so Starsky lifted the covers and patted the space he had just made, with a slight impatient nod of his head.<br/>
Hutch was visibly trembling as he got into the bed, so as soon as he had laid down, Starsky pulled the covers over him.<br/>
"Why are you hooked up again?" Hutch whispered as he began to shake even more.<br/>
Starsky quickly began to soothe him, wrapping his arms around him and shushing him a couple of times as Hutch started to cry.<br/>
"Hey, hey! I just accidentally fell over a couple of hours after you left. The doctor's just being overly cautious. That's all," Starsky said frantically when Hutch's sobs didn't subside.<br/>
"You could have died. You could already be dead," Hutched wept into Starsky's chest.<br/>
"What?" Starsky asked, utterly perplexed.<br/>
Instead of answering his question, Hutch continued to cry.<br/>
"Here," Starsky said as he grabbed Hutch's left hand. He then brought it up against his heart and moved his friend's fingers so that they were splayed out.<br/>
"Don't you feel that? That's my heart beating, that means I'm alive," Starsky said as gently as he could, desperately trying to catch his friend's eyes, while Hutch was desperately trying to avert his own.<br/>
Hutch then scrunched his eyes shut and tucked his head down so that it was resting between Starsky's chest and his own.<br/>
"I could be feeling my own heartbeat," Hutch croaked out between sobs.<br/>
Starsky shook his head in disbelief before asking, "How much sleep have you gotten these past few days?"<br/>
"I don't know. Maybe a few hours?" Hutch mumbled.<br/>
Starsky's eyes widened in shock, but before he could ask anything else, his doctor walked in, looking down at his clipboard and flipping between the sheets on it.<br/>
"It would seem there was no reason for me to have been worried. But, hey, it's better safe than s- ah... ugh," the man stumbled over his words as he looked up from his work to see the tableau before him.<br/>
"Hey, Doc. Could you pass me your stethoscope?" Starsky asked, holding out his hand that wasn't tucked beneath Hutch.<br/>
Instead of answering, his doctor just roamed his eyes between the two suspiciously.<br/>
Annoyed, Starsky started thrusting his hand out insistently.<br/>
His doctor then sighed and handed it over.<br/>
Starsky then carefully put the earpieces into Hutch's ears.<br/>
"Do you hear your heartbeat or mine?" He asked his friend as he held the medical apparatus carefully by the stem, holding it above and away from both of their heads.<br/>
Hutch shook his head. The sound coming through the earpieces was like what you would hear when you held a seashell up against your ear.<br/>
Starsky gave a curt nod before placing it over his heart. Taking in a sharp breath as he did so because of how cold the diaphragm was.<br/>
"What about now? Do you hear my heart now?"<br/>
Hutch, who's tears and sobbing had begun to subside after Starsky's doctor walked in, began to wail again.<br/>
He nodded his head frantically before snuggling into the side of Starsky. Starsky then swiftly took the stethoscope out of his partner's ears, handed it back to his doctor, then gathered his partner up into a more intimate hug so that he could rub the younger man's back more comfortably.<br/>
His doctor stood in his spot awkwardly for a short while after he took his stethoscope back. Until finally, he made his way over to Starsky, took the needle out of his arm and unpeeled the electrodes from his chest.<br/>
As soon as he did, Hutch was dead asleep. Starsky kept him close as he fell asleep himself.</p><p>When he awoke a few hours later to go to the restroom down the hall, Hutch was still pressed into his side.<br/>
Not wanting to wake the other, he carefully laid him down flat on his back. He silently cursed himself after doing so as he then realised that his arm that was still under Hutch was now stuck.<br/>
Trying to shuffle himself off of the bed carefully to ease his arm from underneath Hutch, he accidentally fell off. The momentum of the fall swung his body into the small bedside table with a loud thud. Loud enough that it woke Hutch up with a start, which finally released Starsky's trapped arm.<br/>
"Starsky?" Hutch asked sleepily.<br/>
Starsky got up from the side of the bed as quickly and quietly as he could, successfully hiding the wince doing so caused.<br/>
"Shhh, it's all right. I just need the toilet. I'll be back in a minute," Starsky whispered whilst slowly making his way around the hospital bed.<br/>
After relieving himself, he returned to his room only to see that Hutch was still awake and was looking at him through his half-opened eyes, which made him look like he was gazing at him provocatively. He ignored the heat the look conjured up and walked back over to the bed and got in. Hutch shuffled about a bit so that they could both settle down comfortably.<br/>
As they began to fall asleep again, Hutch suddenly whispered, "I'm sorry."<br/>
Starsky opened his eyes to look over at his friend as he asked, "Sorry for what?"<br/>
"For being a jerk to you this past year," Hutch replied.<br/>
"You have?" Starsky asked; he honestly couldn't think of any jerkish behaviour the other man had done besides sleeping with Kira.<br/>
"Yeah," was all Hutch said in return as he fell back asleep.<br/>
Starsky scrunched up his eyebrows in confusion and then just shook his head, chalking up the apology to Hutches sleep-deprived mind making things up.</p><p>As the captain had suggested, the following day, after Hutch said his goodbyes to Starsky for the day, he looked over the case files again. And now that he had finally had a good nights rest, he saw that there was no reason to have worried himself senseless. They had collected all the evidence they needed, had compelled a solid case for the prosecutor to argue and had made sure that there were no loose ends.<br/>
He stayed at the station for a few hours, filling out the paperwork of old cases and looking through cold case files, seeing as he didn't have anything else he could do without his partner.<br/>
When he was done for the day, he packed up his things and had headed out to his car. Though not before saying goodbye to Dobey, who just gave him a gruff goodbye and shooed him away with a flick of his wrist in return as he was on the phone.<br/>
He arrived at Starsky's hospital room in high spirits, which only rose higher when he saw that Starsky was sat up on the edge of his hospital bed, his bags packed by his side.<br/>
"You're being released?" Hutch asked with an almost manic grin.<br/>
Starsky gave a little snort at this and nodded his head in confirmation.<br/>
"Great! That's really great, Starsky!"<br/>
Hutch then held back his excitement as Starsky slowly got up from his bed.<br/>
"Do you need someone to help you with stuff for a bit? Because if you do, I could stay at your place for a while. I would suggest my own place, but I think mine has more steps than yours..." Hutch only finished his animated babble when Starsky took the few steps from his bed to cover the blonde's mouth with his hand.<br/>
"Hutch, calm down before you give yourself an aneurysm," Starsky chuckled before releasing his hand.<br/>
"Sorry, I'm just so happy you're finally getting out of the hospital," Hutch apologised.<br/>
"You and me both, babe," Starsky said, with a slight chuckle still in his voice, as he took a step over to his bed to pick up his belongings.<br/>
Hutch, whose body had been buzzing from his repressed excitement, froze, and his face morphed into that of uncertainty at hearing Starsky use the term of endearment.<br/>
Starsky's expression upon seeing Hutches when he turned around turned into one of confusion.<br/>
"What?" He asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious though not knowing why.<br/>
"I... It's nothing. Anyway, you never answered my question," Hutch said hesitantly, deciding it was best to change the subject- for now- he could easily ask his impulsive partner about his use of the pet name later.<br/>
"What question was that?"<br/>
Hutch let out an annoyed huff and crossed his arms.<br/>
"About whether or not you need someone to help you for a while with stuff."<br/>
"Oh! Er, yeah, that'd be great, Hutch," Starsky said with a suppressed grin.</p><p>For the next few weeks, as they waited for Gunther's trial to start, Hutch stayed over at Starsky's house.<br/>
Starsky loved every second as he didn't have to do a single house chore whilst he had his friend there to do them. This was until a few days before the trial when Hutch finally realised what he was doing.<br/>
Starsky was lying on his couch reading a Parade magazine when suddenly he was hit in the back of the head by a slipper.<br/>
"Ow!" He yelped as he dropped the magazine onto his lap as he shot up into a sitting position to look behind him.<br/>
"What the hell, Hutch?!" Starsky asked as he saw a very annoyed, slipperless Hutch standing at his front door.<br/>
The other man had a laundry basket full of clothes tucked against his side and was wearing a very form-fitting outfit, which gave Starsky pause.<br/>
"You've used me as nothing more than a glorified maid these past few weeks!" Hutch complained as he stormed into the house.<br/>
"What?" Starsky asked dumbly.<br/>
"You heard me," Hutch said dangerously with narrowed eyes as he made his way over to Starsky's bedroom.<br/>
"I honestly don't know what you mean. I'm an invalid. I can't do the washing like you've just done!" Starsky protested as he turned his head to watch his friend move across the room, subconsciously watching his friend's butt as he did.<br/>
"Oh, ho, no. No, you don't!" Hutch said, annoyed as he shook his head. He then proceeded to drop the laundry basket carelessly onto the bed, making it bounce and spill some of its washing, before turning around.<br/>
He then jabbed a finger towards the other man and proceeded to shout.<br/>
"I have been doing your physiotherapy with you and was there when the doctor told you how much you have recovered! I know what you can and can't do for yourself, and cleaning is definitely something you can do yourself."<br/>
Hutch paused his rant to storm towards the couch. Starsky psychically shuddered as he lowered himself back down into a laying position on the couch.<br/>
"I put up with it for the first couple of weeks because I was just happy that you were finally out of the hospital. But now I would like you to do at least some things yourself. Like, clean the kitchen!" Hutch carried on as he approached the couch leaning over the back to tower over the older man.<br/>
Starsky rose his magazine back up, creating a flimsy barrier between him and the very frustrated man above him.<br/>
Sensing that Starsky was about to stop paying attention to him, he snatched the magazine out of his friend's hands.<br/>
"Hey!" Starsky protested.<br/>
"You can't have this back until you start doing your share of chores, okay?" Hutch said in an almost patronising manner.<br/>
Starsky silently fumed and breathed out harshly through his nose before nodding his head in assent.</p><p>That night as Hutch laid peacefully on Starsky's couch Starsky loomed over him with his dimmed flashlight in his mouth, some shaving cream in one hand and his razor in his other.<br/>
Ever since Hutch stole his magazine earlier that morning, he had been silently scheming what he could do to his friend in revenge.<br/>
His current idea came to him when they were eating dinner together. He was sitting opposite Hutch at the dining room table, zoning out a little while watching the man eat a pizza slice, when suddenly he realised that Hutch had some ketchup in his moustache.<br/>
He had always hated that moustache, and as he watched Hutch take another bite, he remembered when his partner had first stepped foot into the precinct after a weeks vacation with it. Though it wasn't as thick as it was now, it was still just as ugly to him as then. He remembered flinching away from the other in revulsion, thinking to himself, 'What did he do to his beautiful face.' He then asked out loud if the other man knew he had a blonde caterpillar under his nose, which earned him a slap on the arm so hard he almost fell off the desk he was sitting on top of.<br/>
With these memories in mind and as Hutch finally finished his slice of pizza, he decided that it had to go, and even though Hutch was more than likely going to kill him, it would be worth it in the end.<br/>
So that night, he waited until Hutch was dead asleep before getting up, rapping some cloth over his already weak flashlight and getting his best razor before sneaking his way over to Hutch.<br/>
Now, as he loomed over him, he began to lose confidence in his plan. What if Hutch woke up? What if Hutch cried? What if Hutch woke up, cried, then tried to kill him?<br/>
Shaking with anticipation, he took a few quick breathes before kneeling beside Hutch. He carefully smeared the cream into Hutch's moustache, then dipped the razor in the glass of water Hutch had on the coffee table and began to shave off the moustache.<br/>
However, halfway through his administrations, Hutch suddenly woke up with a start, throwing Starsky onto his butt, which hit the coffee table with a loud thud on his way down.<br/>
"Starsk, what..." Hutch began sleepily but then stopped when looking down at his friend he saw from the shine of the flashlight; which was brighter than it was as the cloth Starsky was using to dampen it had fallen off as he fell, that Starsky had a razor and had some leftover cream smeared down his shirt.<br/>
He instantly knew what his friend was doing but ran into the bathroom to confirm his suspicions.<br/>
"Hutch, wait!" Starsky cried as the other man flew off of the couch and ran past him.<br/>
Sliding into the bathroom, he turned on its light and then let out a furious bellow.<br/>
Whimpering, Starsky began to back away from his hysterical looking best friend.<br/>
"David Michael Starsky, what have you done?" Hutch asked as he slowly made his way towards the cowering man, sounding just as hysterical as he looked.<br/>
"I, erm... shaved part of your moustache off," Starsky stuttered as he back away some more.<br/>
"And why did you do that?" Hutch asked as he tilted his head slightly to one side.<br/>
"Because you took away my magazine," Starsky said dumbly.<br/>
Hutch then closed his eyes, chuckled through his closed lips and nodded his head in agreement, as he already knew that was the reason why his friend had done it.<br/>
He had then lunged forward and charged at Starsky at full speed. Starsky let out a very unmanly squeak before starting to run away from his friend.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Court date</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Sorry would have updated this sooner but the story wasn't showing up in my stories (I'm guessing because I've made it anonymous), so it took me a while to figure out how to update it. Also as a warning, this is the chapter where the angst begins. And I have never actually witnessed a court proceeding so I'm just going by what I have watched on tv (Mainly the few episodes of Matlock I have watched). </p><p>Also, it's not stated in this chapter (It's stated in chapter 4) but the trial in this chapter is for Gunther's involvement in Starsky's hit. Not his other crimes. Just in case there is some confusion...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dobie sat in his office, eating a bagel and reading through the Gunther report when state's attorney Alex O'Leary walked in.<br/>
"Dobie," Alex greeted solemnly.<br/>
His tone instantly made Dobie's head snap up.<br/>
"What is it, Alex?" Dobie asked hesitantly.<br/>
"It's Gunther," Alex started, but before he could continue, Dobie asked with a sigh, "He hasn't fired his lawyer again, has he?"<br/>
The trial was supposed to have happened six weeks prior, but Gunther had fired his lawyer, so the court date was set back, then he fired that lawyer, so it was held back once again.<br/>
"No... It's who his new lawyer is," Alex said ominously.<br/>
Dobie carefully put down his bagel before cautiously asking, "Who's his lawyer, Alex?"<br/>
Alex took a deep breath before replying, "Amon Prescott."<br/>
"Damn!" Dobie exclaimed, slamming his fists on his desk for effect, narrowly missing his discarded lunch.</p><p>Hutch didn't speak to Starsky for a full day after the shaving incident.<br/>
After tackling Starsky to the ground and messing him around a bit, whilst being careful of his still healing injuries, Hutch had gotten off of the floor, walked over to the bathroom and slammed the door closed behind him.<br/>
He then stood and stared at his reflection for half an hour.<br/>
Ever since he was a kid, he had wanted to grow a moustache. At first, he had wanted to grow one for his father's affection, as if growing one would somehow prove to the stubborn man that he was, in fact, his son, but after he had run away at sixteen, he had wanted to grow one for himself.<br/>
It had taken him nearly twenty years of shaving to get it thick enough for his liking. So it was a little heartbreaking that he was going to have to shave it off.<br/>
It wasn't until they had gone into work the day before Gunther's trial that he finally spoke to the other man.<br/>
"Hey, come on, you're not still mad at me, are you?" Starsky asked as he opened the door to the precinct; he talked to Hutch all the way to the building and had only just realised before opening said doors that Hutch had not been replying to anything he had been saying.<br/>
"What do you think?" Hutch asked, walking into the building in front of Starsky.<br/>
Before Starsky could ask his partner why him shaving off his moustache was such a big deal anyway, Dobey came out of the bullpen.<br/>
"Starsky, what are you doing here?!" Dobey exclaimed as soon as he noticed the other man.<br/>
"Good to see you too, Cap," Starsky said a little sarcastically.<br/>
Dobey sighed before replying, "Of course, it's good to see you kid, I'm just surprised you are here, is all."<br/>
"Hutch needed to come in and get some paperwork, and I needed a walk. So we thought we'd kill two birds with one stone," Starsky explained.<br/>
"Hm, I guess you can kill three birds with one stone then," Dobey said thoughtfully as he gazed off into the distance.<br/>
"What does that mean?" Starsky asked with a frown.<br/>
"Come into my office, both of you," He said in the way of explanation before making his way there.<br/>
Starsky and Hutch followed closely behind and only paused briefly before entering the captain's office.<br/>
"Captain, what did you mean by killing three birds with one stone?" Hutch asked as he sat down in one of the chairs in front of Dobey's desk.<br/>
Dobey sat down in his chair and was about to answer the young detective's question but was momentarily sidetracked when he noticed Hutch's clean-shaven face.<br/>
"Your moustache has gone," Dobey observed as he leaned back in his chair slightly.<br/>
Hutch just sighed and looked away from his captain with an annoyed expression, one which Dobey knew meant that he wouldn't get an answer to his unasked question of 'why?'. So instead, he looked over to the older of the pair with a raised eyebrow.<br/>
"I, uh, shaved it off," Starsky explained, looking contrite.<br/>
"I see," Dobey said before sighing into his hands.<br/>
The older man rubbed his hands over his face, stalling somewhat before telling the pair his warning.<br/>
"Gunther's new lawyer is Amon Prescott," Dobey began before Starsky interrupted in by asking, "Who's he?"<br/>
"Don't interrupt me. I was about to get to that," Dobey chided, making Starsky flinch slightly.<br/>
"Sorry, Cap," Starsky apologised.<br/>
Dobey acknowledged this with a nod before continuing, "It's a god damn miracle you boys haven't encountered him yet! He is a vicious and cruel man who uses every loophole he can find to get his clients off scot-free. So I need you boys to be prepared for anything."<br/>
"Anything?" Hutch asked, suddenly feeling very anxious.<br/>
Dobey nodded his head, solemnly before repeating, "Anything."</p><p>The rest of the day was filled with anticipation as they prepared themselves for court.<br/>
When court day finally arrived, Hutch woke up feeling like his stomach had been turned inside out. By the tone Dobey had used for the word 'anything', it had sounded like it was directed at him somehow. But he knew he had nothing to fear as his record was sealed and had been for the past fifteen years. But he also knew that you could open a sealed record for several different reasons, any of which could have been used by the defence.<br/>
He slowly made his way to breakfast that morning in a slump, which Starsky noticed.<br/>
"Hey, we don't have anything to worry about. There's no loophole this Prescot guy can use. You guys have made a solid case, remember," Starsky said, trying to be encouraging when he saw that Hutch had sat down to eat Starsky's cereal instead of making his usual goat's milk smoothie.<br/>
"Yeah," was all Hutch said as he poured milk into his bowl in a daze.<br/>
Starsky bit his lip then drank his coffee as he watched his friend eat his breakfast like a zombie.<br/>
He had a feeling why Hutch was worried; it was one of the first things Dobey had told him about his partner, after all. It had shocked him at first, and he didn't speak to his friend for days after, but he soon got over his shock and has supported his friend ever since.<br/>
And will continue to do so no matter what happened that afternoon.</p><p>They both dressed up smart for court, which Dobey was a little surprised by when they showed up a few minutes before Gunther's trial was about to start.<br/>
"Are you ready?" Dobey asked them both, though it was mainly pointed towards Hutch, making the man even more nervous than he already was.<br/>
Instead of speaking, Hutch swallowed and gave the man a curt nod before making his way into the courthouse.<br/>
All three of them settled into the front row and sat in silence as they watched the multitude of spectators pile into the courtroom. They weren't surprised when they saw that the majority of the crowd were police officers, both in and out of dress uniform. But they were surprised when they saw Huggy casually walk in with his hands in his blue suede jeans.<br/>
"Huggy!" Starsky exclaimed with an almost manic grin as he got up to greet his friend.<br/>
He hadn't seen the hustler in months, not since the incident in his hospital room.<br/>
"Hey, how's it hanging, brother?" Huggy greeted as Starsky pulled him into a man hug.<br/>
"It's been great, Hug. Hutch has been helping me out a lot," Starsky replied to his friend's question as he began to pull away.<br/>
Hutch gave an indignant snort at the comment but gave his friend a smile in greeting.<br/>
Huggy chuckled and sat down behind the trio.<br/>
The room, which had been filled with laughter and hearty chatter, quietened down into hushed whispers when Gunther entered the courtroom with an armed escort in tow, followed by a well dressed snobbish looking young man who both Starsky and Hutch assumed was Gunther's infamous new lawyer.<br/>
Gunther looked over towards Starsky with an almost smug expression before sitting down, though his expression quickly turned to one of loathing when he turned his sights on Hutch.<br/>
Then a few seconds later, the judge walked in.<br/>
"All rise for the honourable Judge James Mays," The court usher cried.<br/>
There was a chorus of furniture scraping and thumping as the whole room moved to stand up.<br/>
The trial then started.</p><p>Hutch was last to testify, which terrified him just as much as it would have if he were going up first.<br/>
His anxieties rose as the day progressed and as he watched Prescot work. Dobey was right when he said the man was ruthless; he had already made two of their witnesses cry and had made another throw-up.<br/>
Starsky placed a comforting hand on his knee about halfway through the trial when it wouldn't stop jittering. This calmed his nerves somewhat but didn't relieve them for long as it was soon time for Starsky to take his turn at the witness stand.<br/>
As soon as Starsky's name was called out, he made a move to stand. Though he wasn't able to move right away, as before he could, Hutch suddenly latched onto him like a lifeline.<br/>
"Hey, it's going to be fine," Starsky whispered reassuringly into the other man's ear.<br/>
Hutch let go with a slight nod of his head and watched on in distress as Starsky made his way over to the stand. He then jumped slightly when he felt a hand touch his shoulder but soon relaxed when he realised it was Huggy's and was intended to soothe.<br/>
He didn't hear much of the questioning, though he was sure that Starsky was his usual snarky self as he was able to hear a distant snickering behind the louder pounding of his heart.<br/>
Then before he knew it, it was his turn to take the stand.<br/>
Both Starsky and Huggy gave his shoulders a reassuring squeeze before he stood up. Though standing up was a bit of a hassle, as he was shaking like a leaf due to his unease, he felt as if his legs would give out from under him at any moment.<br/>
But finally, after a few seconds, he made his way over to the witness stand.<br/>
As he stood inside the witness box, he held up his hand and automatically read out the oath as he looked over towards his friends. Starsky gave him two thumbs up and gave an encouraging smile- which was copy and pasted onto Dobey's and Huggy's faces.<br/>
He sat down with a sigh and crossed his legs, partly trying to get comfortable and partly to make it appear as if he wasn't as nervous as he was about sitting in the stand. As soon as he had sat down, Prescott made his way over and casually leaned against the judge's podium.<br/>
"Sergeant Hutchingson, can you please tell the court how long you have been a police officer," Prescott started his questioning straight away without hesitation, which gave Hutch an uneasy foreboding feeling.<br/>
"Seven, almost eight years.".<br/>
Prescott nodded at this and pushed his thick-rimmed glasses onto the bridge of his nose.<br/>
"And what made you want to become a police officer?" Prescott asked.<br/>
"I wanted to help make a difference in this bleak world," He paused briefly in his stuttering to look over at his friends whose faces were all pulling different variations of 'what's going on?'. He continued more confidently, "I don't see what this has to do with the Gunther case."<br/>
"Oh. Really?" Prescott asked as he pushed himself off of the podium.<br/>
"Yeah," Hutch said with a nod for emphasis.<br/>
"So this case against my client wasn't a, for all intents and purposes, retributive witch hunt?" Prescott asked, making his way over the defendant's desk.<br/>
Hutch frowned, wondering where these questions were heading.<br/>
"No. Though I was angry that Mr Gunther had hired out hitmen, who had semi-successfully carried out said hit on my partner. I would never take the law into my hands like that."<br/>
"I wasn't referring to Mr Gunther's actions as a businessman. I was suggesting his actions as a father," He explained as he picked up an old manila folder.<br/>
Dread immediately washed over Hutch.<br/>
"As a father?" Hutch stuttered in confusion as he began to sweat.<br/>
"Yes, a father. A father who to this day regrets leaving his son in the hands of his mother. A father who laments about the days with his son before his untimely death by your hands," Prescott continued as he opened up his folder.<br/>
"So-n... What are you talking about?!" Hutch asked wide-eyed.<br/>
"Henry Foster," was all Prescott said before Hutch began to hyperventilate.<br/>
"It says here that you were one of his prostitutes," Prescott began, smiling almost cruelly when he heard the burst of confusion coming from the police officers in the benches.<br/>
But before he could continue, Dobey quickly stood up and shouted, "I object! That is a sealed record he's reading from your honour."<br/>
Judge Mays looked towards Prescott with a raised eyebrow, silently asking the younger man to explain himself.<br/>
"It was sealed your honour, but when sergeant Hutchingson was arrested for the suspected murder of his wife, it was unsealed," Prescott explained, almost smirking when he heard Dobey exclaim, "Damn!"<br/>
"I see. Proceed in your line of questioning then, Mr Presecott," Judge Mays said with a nod and a wave of his hand as he looked down to his side, silently judging Hutch.<br/>
"Thank you, your honour, as I was saying, sergeant Hutchingson, it says in your record that you were one of the prostitutes working under Mr Foster," Prescott continued, unfazed as Hutch began to cry.<br/>
"Yes," Hutch said meekly.<br/>
"And it says here that you shot Mr Foster once in the chest, is that correct."<br/>
"Yes," Hutch said in a daze.<br/>
"And it also says in your statement that you blamed his parents for his death. Not you?"<br/>
"I..." Hutch tried to swallow around a lump in his throat, but when he couldn't, he let out a cough. Not being able to speak, he shook his head.<br/>
"Even to this day, you don't regret killing Mr Gunther's son?" Prescott asked in mock astonishment.<br/>
"Now hang on!" Hutch exclaimed as a wave of anger suddenly burst forth from him, "You're making it sound like murder!"<br/>
"Wasn't it?" Prescott asked, seeming to be genuinely curious.<br/>
"No! It was self-defence. That wretch was going to kill me," Hutch exclaimed.<br/>
"It says in the report that Mr Foster was unarmed, though," Prescott continued.<br/>
"That's because I had taken the gun from him!" Hutch cried out.<br/>
While the questioning was happening, Starsky started to look around the room in alarm, as the other police officers in attendance began to whisper snide and jeering remarks about Hutch to one another, and some were even looking towards Dobey and himself with distrusting expressions.<br/>
Even the jury members who had been quiet for the majority of the trial were whispering amongst each other. And some of them who looked confident in their convictions were beginning to falter.<br/>
"I had no idea Gunther was that arsehole's father. And even if I did, that wouldn't have changed the way I went about this case!" Hutch exclaimed through tears.<br/>
"But you said in your interview for Mr Foster's murder that you wanted to find his parents and punish them too," Prescott said, sounding uninterested.<br/>
"I was traumatised and not thinking properly when I said that," Hutch pleaded.<br/>
Dobey cringed as Prescott continued, wishing not for the first time he had made Daniels change his phrasing of the young teenager's comments.<br/>
"Traumatised?" Prescott said with a raised eyebrow.<br/>
"Yes! Of course, I was traumatised. You honestly think I was a prostitute willingly?" Hutch asked hysterically.<br/>
O'Leary, finally shaken from his shock upon hearing this news about his friend's detective, quickly shot up out of his seat and exclaimed to the judge, "Your honour, this is hearsay! Detective Hutchingson's past shouldn't be considered in this trial."<br/>
"I counter that, your honour, by saying that Detective Hutchingson's sordid past should be taken into account. As it raises questions into his abilities as a police officer," Prescott argued calmly.<br/>
"I'll allow it to be considered," Judge Mays said whilst side-eyeing Hutch.<br/>
He then ordered the jury to deliberate their verdict, though not before telling Hutch with a very disparaging tone to go back to the benches.<br/>
Hutch never let his eyes wander higher than the floor as he walked back to his seat.<br/>
Starsky tried to comfort his friend as soon as he took his seat but grimaced when the other man flinched away from his touch.<br/>
As they waited for the jury to come back with their verdict, Starsky glared at the remaining officers in the courtroom, most of whom had left when the jury had.</p><p>It only took the jury two hours to deliberate, which worried both Starsky and Dobey. And would have worried Hutch if he wasn't currently zoning out on the proceeding.<br/>
"Have the members of the jury found a verdict?" Judge Mays asked as if he already knew the answer.<br/>
"Yes, your honour," a middle-aged woman stood up to speak. Though she was looking towards Hutch with a sad expression, she addressed the room as a whole. "We, the members of this jury, find the defendant not guilty," She continued, her voice slightly cracking up.<br/>
"No!" Hutch cried as he stood up when the verdict got through his meandering thoughts.<br/>
He then immediately fainted, causing all three of his friends to panic.<br/>
"Hutch!" Starsky exclaimed in alarm as he bent across the aisle to check on the younger blond.<br/>
"Quickly get him somewhere quiet!" Dobey commanded as the courtroom noise came to a crescendo as the other officers in the room started to argue.<br/>
"Yes, sir!" Huggy exclaimed as he tried and failed to lift the blond detective.<br/>
Alex O'Leary then chose that moment to storm through the gate. He lifted the detective into a fireman's lift then said to all three men, "Follow me."<br/>
He then led them through a few winding corridors until he came upon an abandoned office. He then opened the office's door, briskly walked over to the two-seater couch by the office's window and deposited Hutch down on it as carefully as he could.<br/>
Starsky immediately ran to his friend's side.<br/>
"Why didn't you tell me about detective Hutchingson's past!" O'Leary shouted in anger.<br/>
Dobey flinched at his friend's outburst before explaining himself.<br/>
"As I said earlier, that file was sealed! I had no idea Simonetti was in the process of getting it unsealed."<br/>
O'Leary began to pace back and forth as he ranted, "Oh, you had no idea. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have told me anyway! What happened if Prescott had managed to get his grubby little hands on it some other way. There are plenty of past deeds those two have done that have almost gotten them arrested. Who's to say the officers investigating those hadn't tried to unseal it too? That many requests to have it unsealed would have surely gotten any half-decent judge curious as to why."<br/>
Dobey began to sweat.<br/>
"I know. I'm sorry. I haven't been my usual perceptive self recently."<br/>
"Obviously," O'Leary said as he rolled his eyes.<br/>
"Hey, leave him alone. He's been put under a lot of pressure recently," Starsky tried to defend his boss and friend. He was too busy watching the men arguing; he didn't realise that Hutch was beginning to stir.<br/>
"He's going to be put under a lot more pressure once word gets out he let an ex-con work for him," O'Leary scoffed as he finally stopped his pacing.<br/>
"Hey! Hutchingson was never convicted for that creeps murder. I made damn sure of that!" Dobey shouted.<br/>
"You did, did you?" O'Leary asked, eyes narrowing.<br/>
Huggy, who had been silently watching the men fight, finally noticed Hutch stirring.<br/>
"Uh, guys?" he tried to get their attention so they would change the subject before Hutch became compos mentis.<br/>
"I was the arresting officer. I was there when that beast attacked Hutch," Dobey spat the last few words out. Though it happened more than ten years prior, the memory of those few daunting weeks was still fresh in his mind. He never wanted to witness anything like that case again; though Ambros was undoubtedly a close match to Foster's mad kind of violence, he was no cigar.<br/>
O'Lear sighed a long-suffering sigh, then turned to look at Starsky.<br/>
"Guys!" Huggy insisted, trying to get the three men's attention by waving his arms about him.<br/>
"I'm surprised you're not reacting to knowing your partner was a prostitute," He told Starsky, not realising that Hutch was beginning to sit up behind him.<br/>
"Dobey already told me," Starsky said with a shrug.<br/>
"What?! He had no right!"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This chapter was inspired by the fan theory that Hutch used to be a prostitute. This theory I'm guessing came about to explain why he always 'white knights' during the episodes about rape and prostitution. And why he was so devastated when he found out that Julian was a prostitute. Also might explain why he's a stuttering mess when he's being questioned in targets without a badge (I can't remember if we ever see him in the stand before that. I'm still only rewatching season 2 at the moment).</p><p>Also why is they end note from chapter 1 showing under this  one?</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is based off of various fan theories I've seen online. And I decided to combine nearly all of them into this fic. I Will put at the end of each chapter which theory/ theories I have used.<br/>For this chapter I used the fan theory that Starsky has always desired Hutch, he just never realised it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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